The Science of James Bond

Robert Weinberg, Lois H. Gresh

Description

The science behind the gadgets, exploits, and enemies of the world's greatest spy


From the sleek Aston Martin that spits out bullets, nails, and passengers at the push of a button to the microjet that makes hairpin turns to avoid a heat-seeking missile, the science and technology of James Bond films have kept millions of movie fans guessing for decades. Are these amazing feats and gadgets truly possible?

The Science of James Bond takes you on a fascinating excursion through the true science that underlies Bond's most fantastic and off-the-wall accoutrements. The acclaimed science-fiction authors Lois Gresh and Robert Weinberg provide a highly entertaining, informative look at the real-world achievements and brilliant imaginations behind such singular Bond gadgets as the buzz-saw Rolex, the car that turns into a submarine, and the ever-popular rocket-firing cigarette. They examine hundreds of Q Division's ingenious inventions; analyze Bond's astonishing battles beneath the earth and sea, in the skies, and even in outer space; and ask intriguing questions that lead to enlightening discussions about the limits of science, the laws of nature, and the future of technology.

Filled with entertaining anecdotes from Bond movie shoots and supplemented with "tech" ratings for all of the Bond movies, The Science of James Bond separates scientific fact from film fantasy--with some very surprising results.
Introduction: Bond, James Bond.

Chapter 1. Uncover The Origins of Mr. Bond: Spies And Science.

Chapter 2. Send Secret Messages: Super-Spy Decoder Rings?.

Chapter 3. Build a Bond Car: Flying, Underwater, Missle-Launching Aston Martins.

Chapter 4. Arm Yourself (And Other Explosive Ideas).

Chapter 5. Stop Nuclear War.

Chapter 6. Use Your Senses: Assorted Body Equipment.

Chapter 7. Get Away From It All: In The Air, On The Sea.

Chapter 8. Get Farther Away From It All: Outer Space Shenanigans.

Chapter 9. Defeat Supervillains .

Chapter 10. Nullify the Threat of Super Weapons.

Chapter 11. Combat Germ Warfare (And Other Nasty Matters).

Chapter 12. Possible or Impossible?.

Chapter 13. Some Thoughts About Secret Bases.

Conclusion.

Appendix 1. The Bond Books.

Appendix 2. The Bond Movies .

Appendix 3. The 00 Secret Agents.

Appendix 4. The Bond Cars.

Source Notes.

Bibliography and Reading List.

Sujets

• Lois H. Gresh
• James Bond (character)
• Robert Weinberg
• Ian Fleming
• 007
• James Bond
• Science

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 21 avril 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780470323410
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE
SCIENCE OF
JAMES BOND
Books by Lois H. Gresh and Robert Weinberg The Science of Superheroes The Science of Supervillains The Science of Anime The Termination Node The Computers of Star Trek The Supernatural Science of Stephen King (forthcoming)
Books by Lois H. Gresh Chuck Farris and the Tower of Darkness Chuck Farris and the Labyrinth of Doom Chuck Farris and the Cosmic Storm The Truth Behind a Series of Unfortunate Events Dragonball Z
Books by Robert Weinberg Secrets of the X-Men Revealed A Logical Magician A Calculated Magic The Black Lodge The Dead Man s Kiss The Devil s Auction The Armageddon Box
THE
SCIENCE OF
JAMES BOND
FROM BULLETS TO BOWLER HATS TO BOAT JUMPS, THE REAL TECHNOLOGY BEHIND 007 S FABULOUS FILMS

Lois H. Gresh
Robert Weinberg
Copyright 2006 by Lois H. Gresh and Robert Weinberg. All rights reserved
Foreword copyright 2006 by Raymond Benson. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
Design and composition by Navta Associates, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data :
Gresh, Lois H.
The science of James Bond / Lois H. Gresh, Robert Weinberg.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13 978-0-471-66195-5 (pbk.)
ISBN-10 0-471-66195-3 (pbk.)
1. Fleming, Ian, 1908-1964-Characters-James Bond. 2. Literature and science-Great Britain-History-20th century. 3. Fleming, Ian, 1908-1964-Knowledge-Science. 4. Spy stories, English-History and criticism. 5. Bond, James (Fictitious character) 6. Science in literature. I. Weinberg, Robert E. II. Title
PR6056.L4Z66 2006
823 .914-dc22
2005013194
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Sean Connery and Ursula Andress, who started it all. To Blofeld and Jaws. And, most definitely, to Q.
Contents
Foreword by Raymond Benson
Introduction: Bond, James Bond
1 Uncovering the Origins of Mr. Bond: Spies and Science
2 Sending Secret Messages: Superspy Decoder Rings
3 Building a Bond Car: Flying, Underwater, and Missile-Launching Aston Martins
4 Arming Yourself (and Other Explosive Ideas)
5 Stopping Nuclear War
6 Using Your Senses: Assorted Body Equipment
7 Getting Away from It All: In the Air and on the Sea
8 Getting Farther Away from It All: Outer-Space Shenanigans
9 Defeating Supervillains
10 Nullifying the Threat of Superweapons
11 Combating Germ Warfare (and Other Nasty Matters)
12 Possible or Impossible?
13 Some Thoughts about Secret Bases
14 Famous Last Lines

Appendix A The Bond Books
Appendix B The 00 Secret Agents
Appendix C The Bond Cars
Appendix D The Science of Martinis
Notes
Index
Foreword
By Raymond Benson



I was nine years old when I made my father take me to see my first James Bond film, Goldfinger . The time was early 1965, probably January, because the film was on its second run at a drive-in theater in Odessa, Texas, where my family was living. My next-door friends mom had been playing the soundtrack on their stereo one day, and I thought the music sounded really cool. I looked at the pictures on the record sleeve and was impressed by the sexy women and the suave guy, whose name was apparently James Bond. Some of my friends had seen the movie and told me I shouldn t miss it. So my dad and I went to the drive-in, and it forever changed the way I looked at the world.
The James Bond films were the Star Wars of the 1960s. They were the blockbusters, the movies everyone stood in line around the block to see. There was nothing else like them until they began to be imitated, usually poorly. Bond was the king of the action/adventure genre until the series shot itself in the foot at some point during the seventies, when the movies became action/ comedies instead of films capable of generating real suspense.
I really didn t care, though. I remained a Bond fan as I went through high school and onward to college. I kept the faith after receiving a degree and moving to New York City to pursue a career in the arts. My fascination with the character (and especially Ian Fleming s original novels) ultimately culminated in writing The James Bond Bedside Companion , a true labor of love. One might have thought that the book, published in 1984, would have satisfied my Bond addiction-but no, it only made me more obsessive. A little over a decade later I found myself penning official 007 novels for Ian Fleming s family and company. Who would have thought?
Exactly what was it that first hooked me into Bondmania? I think it was probably three things: the music, the ultra-coolness of Sean Connery, and the fantastic hardware. I doubt that there was anyone who saw Goldfinger at the time of its release who wasn t wowed by that Aston Martin. When Bond pressed the red button ( Whatever you do, don t touch it! warned Q) and the Korean guard went flying, that was it; the filmmakers had me, and everyone else, in the palms of their hands.
Of course, I was nine years old. I didn t care that an ejector seat like that would have been impossible to achieve, as the authors of this book point out. I wanted to believe in it. And I accepted all of Bond s hardware as real in the first three films (I caught up with the earlier two on a double-bill re-release in the summer of 1965).
When Thunderball came out at the end of 1965, I was still at an impressionable age, but I distinctly remember being struck by the bit when the Aston Martin spurted liquid out of its exhaust pipes with the force of a fireman s hose for nearly a minute. I turned to my parents (my mom had accompanied my dad and me to this one) and asked, Where did all that water come from? But I didn t really care. It was Bond !
Then came You Only Live Twice , in which it seemed that all the vehicles and rooms were equipped with closed-circuit televisions and monitors. In the pre-credits sequence we see a space capsule being swallowed up by SPECTRE s rocket. The guys down at NASA could watch the same scene on their monitors, just like we saw it. Even at age twelve, I turned to my father again (it had become a tradition to see Bond films together) and asked, Where s the camera? Is there another spaceship out there? But again, I really didn t care.
Alas, many of the gadgets and hardware became more and more outlandish and impossible. A Lotus Esprit that performed like a submarine? A gondola that turned into a hydrofoil? A submarine disguised as an ice floe? An Aston Martin that can turn invisible ?
As the Bond films evolved and I grew older, I learned that in order to appreciate the pictures for what they were, one had to suspend disbelief to a certain degree. Sometimes that degree was huge. You went along for the ride and enjoyed it, or you stood up indignantly and shouted, Oh, come on! No way! I have to admit there were a few times when I did the latter.
From 1996 to 1997 I wrote my second Bond novel, The Facts of Death . For that book I wanted to put 007 in a new car. I thought about using the new Aston Martin but eventually settled on the Jaguar XK8. I contacted Jaguar in England and developed a relationship with one of the car s principal designers, a man with a lively sense of humor named Fergus Pollock. Totally game, Fergus helped me come up with the gadgets and weaponry that would go into my Bond car. He made several suggestions, many of which caused me to react with, Oh, come on! No way! But Fergus insisted that his ideas were plausible-if not today, then certainly tomorrow. These included a small flying scout that operated much like Batman s bat plane. It was stored beneath the chassis, and Bond could fly it by remote control, using a joystick. It seemed farfetched, but Fergus assured me it was actually in the planning stages at Jaguar, so I used it.
Another one of Fergus s ideas was color-changing pigment, allowing the Jaguar to be gray in one country and red in another-sort of a variation on the revolving license plates used in Goldfinger . Fergus claimed this could be achieved by electrically charged pigments in the paint, so I used it. In fact, this may be the theory behind the invisible car in Die Another Day .
There were other spiffy items such a